The Scroll and the Lamb

5 Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed^[a] with seven seals,^(A)

⁹ I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(A) 10} He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

¹¹ The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read with the command, “Read this,” they say, “We cannot, for it is sealed.”^(A)

⁷ He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

² He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

The Seven Seals

6 Then I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, “Come!”^[a](A)

⁴ But you, Daniel, keep the words secret and the book sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be running back and forth,^[a] and evil^[b] shall increase.”^(A)

⁵ Then I, Daniel, looked, and two others appeared, one standing on this bank of the stream and one on the other. ⁶ One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was upstream, “How long shall it be until the end of these wonders?”^{(B) 7} The man clothed in linen, who was upstream, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven. And I heard him swear by the one who lives forever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time^[c] and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be accomplished.^{(C) 8} I heard but could not understand, so I said, “My lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” ⁹ He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the end.

¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, singing,

⁸ Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” ⁹ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll, and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.”^{(A) 10} So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.^(B)

¹¹ Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

³ And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.